Sirkka Jarvenpaa, Growing Your Business By Probing. The conventional advice for the entrepreneurial firms encourages them to build “Minimum Viable Ecosystem” that renders the simplest possible assemble that can still create some value to customers. But some companies are taking a different approach by the launching of a plethora of digital initiatives at the rapid pace and at the cutting of emerging technology. Formula E is only at its third season and the center of ever-expanding innovation network leveraging eSports, social media innovations, virtual reality, driverless cars) with little concern for integration and considerable overlap in the initiatives. Rather than experiment in a focused and closed-end matter, the firm “feels around” or probes for interest and attraction in unfamiliar regions that brought together both prospective users and various alliance partners in real-time open-ended dialog with intense and polarized tensions. These tensions further expand the innovation space by challenging taken-for-granted assumptions and instigating possibilities for new alliances.

Dr. Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa (Ph.D.) is the Bayless/Rauscher Pierce Refsnes Chair in Business Administration at The University of Texas at Austin. At the McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin, she serves as the director of the center for Business, Technology and Law and the director of the Information Management program at the Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management. She holds three honorary doctorates. Her research focuses on collaborative forms of digital innovation and digital entrepreneurship.